Wax Wings
by ncfan
Summary: What did you expect, flying so close to the sun?


Disclaimer: I don't own Naruto.

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_Trapped in the labyrinth by King Minos after indirectly aiding Theseus in the slaying of the Minotaur, Daedalus conceived a method to escape the labyrinth to Sicily with his son, Icarus._

_Daedalus fashioned two pairs of wings using feathers and wax, one for himself, one for his son. As they readied to escape, Daedalus gave his son a warning._

"_There are two dangers here, dangers that if you do not take care to avoid them will lead to your death in the sea._

"_One, is that you fly too close to the sea. If you do so, the seawater will loosen the wax on your wings, causing them to fall apart. You will fall in to the sea and drown if this happens._

"_Second, is that you fly too close to the sun. The heat of the sun will melt the wax on your wings, and you will fall and drown."_

_As they flew, Icarus did not heed his father's warnings. He flew too close to the sun, and as Daedalus had warned him, the wax on his wings began to melt. His wings fell apart, and Icarus fell into the sea and drowned._

_It was not until he reached Sicily that Daedalus realized that his son was not with him. He stood on the shore and called for Icarus again and again, but his son did not answer…_

.x.X.x.

It was five years ago that Kabuto realized that he was in over his head.

The sensation that washed over him when Sasori released the memory genjutsu was a bit like a minor concussion mixed with a mild case of vertigo. The symptoms included dizziness, the inability to walk straight for the first few minutes, splitting headaches, double vision, and on occasion, nausea.

By some miracle of fate, he was always alone when Sasori chose to let him know that he wants him to come. Kabuto gathered his things quietly, notified Orochimaru and headed towards Kusa no Kuni.

Sasori met him with an order that…unnerved him, to say the least. Though Kabuto made sure not to show it, the pounding of his heart was making his ribs ache.

Sasori demanded to know everything about the way Orochimaru dislodged his soul to inhabit a new body.

It was not Orochimaru Kabuto was worried about, so much as Sasori. Orochimaru had known about the jutsu for years at that point, and allowed him to continue meeting Sasori so they could know exactly what the former Sand nin had in mind for Orochimaru.

Sasori, Kabuto knew, was dangerous. Moreover, he was capricious and short-tempered, and in truth, he made Kabuto nervous. Kabuto may have been fast, but if Sasori decided to kill him, he knew there would be nothing he could do before the poison dripping scorpion's tale shot out from under the Akatsuki cloak. And Sasori, unlike all others who ever knew him, going beyond Kabuto's father and even Orochimaru, could always tell when Kabuto was lying.

Before he leaves, Sasori gave the same warning he always did.

"_Be wary of Orochimaru. He strikes when you're not looking at him."_

Kabuto has never needed the warning, but thanked Sasori anyway. He knew that though he may and always will be in some danger around Orochimaru, the danger posed by Sasori was far worse.

.x.X.x.

Today, Kabuto realizes that he has always been in over his head.

Shock… It's an odd feeling, and one he is genuinely unused to dealing with. Life in the company of Orochimaru has left Kabuto prepared for nearly anything. He's used to being the one holding all the cards, used to always having some measure of control over what's happening around him. But this… he never expected this.

It's a testament to how shocked Kabuto is that he simply lets Sasuke go. The boy never realizes how close he is to death on that day. If Kabuto had shaken off his shock five minutes sooner, Sasuke wouldn't have lived to see the light of day. But as it is, he stands against the wall, half-catatonic and silent, numb from head to toe.

In short, Kabuto never expected this day to come. He never expected to be confronted with the knowledge that his master is, one way or another, gone; he isn't entirely sure if Orochimaru is dead or simply permanently sealed in Sasuke's body, so far down that he's unable to assert himself. And honestly, he doesn't care. Orochimaru is gone.

He isn't sure what alone is, really. He's always been alone, in some sense of the word or another, most of the times intentionally, and Kabuto has no idea how to tell one type of alone from the other. But this, he is sure, is the worst "alone" he has ever felt.

All the lies, all the crooked half-truths and all the self-deceptions have left him. The naked truth is all that is left, and for the first time, Kabuto knows in full consciousness what he has always known. The thought has always existed, if only at the darkest edges of sleep and night; it is a frightening thought, one of the few things that truly terrifies him, yet a thought Kabuto knows he can't avoid.

He is nothing.

He is nothing at all, because Orochimaru is gone, and has taken with him everything of Kabuto, his name, his identity, his very being.

It will not change. Orochimaru will not rise again, Kabuto knows. This is the last time; there will be no quick, miraculous change of form to stay death and decay. This time, it is absolute. Nothing will bring him back.

There is nothing left in Kabuto; Orochimaru has seen to that. He is more of a shell than the strange, warped corpse lying on the ground in front of him, leaking gory black blood in the dim, half light. The years of living in the depths of Sound have robbed him of meaning, of light, of any real reason at all, save Orochimaru, and now the final thing left to him is gone as well.

The masks upon masks have taken on lives of their own, now that Orochimaru is gone.

His eyes burn, yet are completely dry. His breathing quickens, yet his heart does not pound. His blood settles in his veins, and does not move anymore. He is the living dead, who no longer have life yet still breathe.

Kabuto wonders how long he has been drowning, or if he was ever treading water at all.

* * *

The Icarus myth struck a cord with me. I wrote up there a brief recap of what I remembered of it, though the last paragraph was of my own invention. Now, I just have to figure out who fits what role. Anyway, hope you liked. Kabuto doesn't seem the type to fall to pieces over _anything._


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